This rare picture was taken in the 1880s by Raja Deen Dayal. It shows the canal of the Hussain Sagar Lake and some unknown mills in the backdrop, on side of Secunderabad. Deen Dayal, a native of Indore, was appointed the official court photographer by the Sixth Nizam, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan. He was India’s first world-class photographer. Deen Dayal had set up studios across the Secunderabad, Indore, Mumbai and was said to have captured an estimated 30,000 pictures of monuments, people, and events.
Nizam conferred the title Raja on Deen Dayal. This is one of the pictures that reveal the glorious past of Hussain Sagar Lake.
Here are some of the shocking facts related to the Lake
*Hussain Sagar Lake, situated at the heart of Hyderabad city, was built by a Sufi saint Hazrat Hussian Shah Wali in 1562 during the reign of Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah, at a cost of Rs 2.5 lakhs. Sheer callousness and indifference turned this beautiful freshwater lake into a massive garbage bin in India. The water is no longer pottable. Till recently, the jewel of Hyderabad Crown emanated stink. Still, no attempt was made to preserve the Lake for decades.
*Hussain Sagar is a 450-year old water body, built across a tributary of River Musi.
*The Lake was not filled with water even four years after its completion in 1562. A channel was dug to divert the water into the lake.
*The purpose of the Lake construction was to meet the demand of water requirements of the city. Unfortunately, the growing urban sprawl defeated the purpose.
*Between 1884 and 1930, the Lake was a major source of drinking water and irrigation. Later, the Lake fell into disuse as the effluents and other pollutants found their way into the lake.
*The Lake area has shrunken from about 550 ha to about 349 ha at present. The 2002 satellite data reveals that the Lake has shrunken by about 300 acres in the previous 25 years because of unbridled encroachments.
*According to a research paper, every day, as much as 78 million litres of sewage and 15 million litres of industrial effluents flow into the Lake through four drains. Due to this, the Hussain Sagar known as Asia’s biggest man-made lake lost its natural ability of self-purification.
*At present, the oxygen levels of the lake water have reached the lowest and pollution is at its maximum now.
*The Lake now has turned into a virtual garbage bin.
The Lake has four feeder Nallas namely Picket Nalla, Kukatpally Nalla, Banjara Nalla and Balkapur Nalla.
*Picket Nalla Banjara Nalla and Balkapur Nalla discharged mainly domestic sewage into the lake, while Kukatappally Nalla contributed domestic sewage and industrial effluents. This unabated accumulation of hazardous pollutants led to the death of Hussain Sagar Lake as a drinking water source.
*Now, a project to clean the Hussain Sagar Lake has been underway since 2006. Steps are being taken to improve the dissolved oxygen in the water so that aquatic life would flourish in the lake.